In remote right-wing Poland, their Children's Ombudsman, Ewa Sowinska, has once more cast aspersions on Tinky Winky, citing his magical handbag as proof that he's a gay satansbubbie. Moan. Okay, this isn't particularly original. Along with his infamous "Gaard made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve" comment, the late unlamented US televangelist Jerry Falwell was responsible for the initial Tubbyphobic tirade. According to his National Liberty Journal (1999), Tinky Winky was purple, had a triangle atop his antenna, and then there's his choice of accessories - a handbag! And so, he expostulated, Tinky Winky was a gayboybubbie QED. Now, Tinky Winky isn't the only target of televangelists with too much time on their hands. Focus on the Family US leader, James Dobson, once opined that Spongebob Squarepants was probably Satanbob Sinpants, and promoting homosexuality, given his overly chummy relationship with Patrick Star, the suspiciously pink starfish. And his girly mannerisms! And isn't Sandy Cheeks suspiciously assertive for a female squirrel, not to mention that hulking great pressure suit she wears? Hmmm. Fortunately, Poland's Sejm (Parliament) has got better things to do, and sharply told Ms Sowinska that this was a frivolous waste of time, and shouldn't she be doing better things, like actually safeguarding children's rights, instead of calling psychologists in to investigate the purple one. Common sense won out though, as a few days later, after receiving heavy international scorn, Poland's TV watchdogs revised their opinion. "They are fictional characters, they have nothing to do with reality,” a spokesperson backtracked. "We are not going to deal with this issue any more." OK, so Poland has moved on, but we wanted the issue settled once and for all… so we picked up the phone and called UK actor, author and comedian Dave Thompson – the man inside the Teletubbie. In this revealing interview, he was kind enough to share his thoughts on being Tinky Winky: GayNZ.com: Tinky Winky's handbag accessory makes people assume the Teletubby is of the homosexual persuasion! Were you aware of this at the time of filming and did you or the crew play up to it? Dave Thompson: The Teletubbies, being intended for an audience aged from zero to three, are pre-sexual beings. They all have a favourite toy, which are found objects. Po has the scooter, Dipsy has the hat, Laalaa has the ball, and Tinky Winky has the hand bag. As the Teletubbies aren't human, they have no knowledge as to the intended use of their favourite toys. The show was filmed in the corner of a field on a farm near Stratford–on–Avon. We had fantastic fun making it, and yes, I camped it up when I was in costume and we were waiting for the shots to be set up. However, the producers of the show intended no sexual connotations. I think they were trying to get away from the clichéd custom of male characters having guns/cars/balls, and female characters having dolls/prams/kitchen items to play with. As the Teletubbies are fat, I didn't want to fall into the trap of making Tinky Winky clumsy and heavy on his feet. Oliver Hardy (of Laurel and Hardy) was funny by dancing in a graceful way, not by being heavy and cumbersome. Charlie Chaplin was very light on his feet, and graceful in his movements. The Teletubbies are clowns, and when I studied clowning in the past, I was taught that funny is light and graceful, and that's how I moved as Tinky Winky. GayNZ.com: What was being a Teletubby like? It seems like it would be a fun job, but the role must have challenges involved too? Thompson: Making the Teletubbies was one of the happiest times of my life. We were put up in a luxury country house hotel in the Cotswold area of England. At the beginning, there was a euphoric atmosphere on the set, and we were paid good money to behave like three year olds all day. Inevitably when filming, there are long periods of waiting around whilst they set up lights and cameras, etc. I spent this time relaxing with the head off, reading novels. Sometimes I'd read a whole novel in a day. It was incredibly hot in the costume, especially as the show was only filmed in the Summer. For some unknown reason, I was made so I can happily withstand incredible heat, and stay in a costume for long periods. I study the martial art aikido, and I used those skills to be able to run up hills repeatedly in hot sunshine. I used to arrive early on the set every day, and spend twenty minutes doing aikido exercises, and yoga. Before I got the job, I was working as a stand-up comedian. Playing Tinky Winky made an interesting change from driving all over the country telling jokes to rooms full of drunks. I never stopped doing stand-up whilst I was filming The Teletubbies, though. We filmed from Monday to Friday, and I did stand-up at weekends, and sometimes on week nights too. GayNZ.com: Are you gay yourself? Thompson: I'm not gay. I'm married to a lovely Hungarian girl, sixteen years younger than me. However, I believe that it's only in the last few hundred years that we've thought in terms of people being straight or gay. Sex was taboo in Victorian times, but lots of gay and lesbian sex took place between ‘heterosexual' people. They just didn't admit it in public. I went to art college when it was fashionable to be bisexual. We got up to all sorts of things, and had great fun doing it! For some reason, before I got married, a lot of bisexual or lesbian women liked me, and I slept with them. I have many gay friends, both male and female. We are all made up of masculine and feminine elements, and the more we can integrate both elements, the happier we are. GayNZ.com: Are they still making the show? I notice you're not with the cast anymore, did you decide to move on from Teletubbyland? Thompson: They haven't made the show for several years. I was fired, and there was a huge thing about it in the media at the time. We shot so much generic footage whilst I was there, that I appear in every show and my name is in the credits. I was eight feet tall with my aerial. Sometimes there are five names in the credits, and sometimes there are four names in the credits, but my name is always in the credits because I'm in every show, apart from one or two of the ‘Dance with The Teletubbies' DVDs. I wasn't the only one to get fired. There was a purge at the time I was fired. The bloke inside the Noonoo was fired, and so was Bob Berk, the designer. He was a part-owner in the company, and he designed the original Monty Python's Flying Circus. He still got fired from the Teletubbies though. Last weekend I was out sailing off the coast of Kent, in the Thames Estuary. He sailed past us in his boat. The Teletubbies might be a children's TV programme, but it's still TV, which is a ruthless, brutal, cut-throat business. People get fired all the time, it comes with the territory - just ask the folks departing TVNZ's newsroom! Dave Thompson says he's currently in the process of publishing a novel based loosely on his experience of being Tinky Winky. For more about this and his other work, check out his website at davethompson.org.uk, or find him on MySpace - myspace.com/comediandavethompson. Craig Young and Matt Akersten - 6th June 2007
Credit: Craig Young and Matt Akersten
First published: Wednesday, 6th June 2007 - 2:59pm